DataFlex is an

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...

high-level programming language In computer science, a high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In contrast to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language ''elements'', be easier to ...

and a fourth generation visual tool 4GL for developing Windows, web and mobile software applications on one framework-based platform. It was introduced and developed by ''Data Access Corporation'' beginning in 1982. “DataFlex: An Introduction by Curtis Krauskopf”
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History and overview

DataFlex can be traced back to 1982 when the company called ''Data Access Corporation'' (founded in 1976) created and developed a language allowing application code to run on almost any system architecture, regardless of hardware. It started as a relatively early example of a fully fledged and commercially used

fourth-generation programming language A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations ...

(4GL). In its early forms, DataFlex was available for CP/M,

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

, TurboDOS,

Novell NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in ...

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

, VMS and

IBM AIX AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced , "ay-eye-ex") is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms. Background Originally released for the IBM RT PC RISC w ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s. By 1985, DataFlex was applied in a variety of high-tech industries including automated inventory control systems and insurance fraud detection systems. DataFlex has lasted many years as a niche application development environment. The DataFlex product supports many

relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

environments:

Oracle database Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle DBMS, Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply as Oracle) is a multi-model database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. It is a database commonly used for running online ...

Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ...

IBM Db2 Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON and ...

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the In ...

and any

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. A ...

database. DataFlex applications are used by around 3 million users. In 1991, the 3.0 version with a modernized interface was released. In 2014, Data Access released 2014/18.0 version. DataFlex is developed and provided by ''Data Access Worldwide'', a software company with main offices in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the international Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service. Pop ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

.dataaccess.com
“DataFlex - Overview”]

Features

The DataFlex language supports: *Supports many database environments:

as well as any

database. *Easily switch between database backends, no code change needed. *Variables are loosely typed. The virtual machine takes care of conversions. *Flexibility; the language is object oriented, so developers can create subclasses and libraries. *Code compiles to an intermediate bytecode, byte-code which makes the programs easily portable between operating systems. *No

threads Thread may refer to: Objects * Thread (yarn), a kind of thin yarn used for sewing ** Thread (unit of measurement), a cotton yarn measure * Screw thread, a helical ridge on a cylindrical fastener Arts and entertainment * ''Thread'' (film), 2016 ...

or multitasking *Methods can - for ease of coding - be defined or redefined inside the object definition. Technically the compiler simply sub-classes the superclass and adds the methods to the class. *Automatic delegation of messages in the

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...

environment *Embedded Database access is

ISAM ISAM (an acronym for indexed sequential access method) is a method for creating, maintaining, and manipulating computer files of data so that records can be retrieved sequentially or randomly by one or more keys. Indexes of key fields are mainta ...

-based. It can be used royalty-free.

Language Extension

*Functions defined in Dynamic Link Libraries can be used. *Classes, methods and properties defined in a COM module can be used. COM automation, controls and embedding is supported.

Development environments

The DataFlex programming language is used in the following development environments: ; DataFlex Studio: This is the flagship visual development environment from Data Access Worldwide. DataFlex is available for Microsoft Windows only. DataFlex is a GUI development language in a style comparable with

Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to: * Visual Basic .NET (now simply referred to as "Visual Basic"), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET * Visual Basic (c ...

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracl ...

and C++. From version 4 (1996) up until version 17.1 (2015), the product was labeled Visual DataFlex. ;DataFlex WebApp Server: Available for

Microsoft IIS Internet Information Services (IIS-pronounced 2S, formerly Internet Information Server) is an extensible web server software created by Microsoft for use with the Windows NT family. IIS supports HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and ...

only, the DataFlex WebApp Server can be used to develop thin client applications such as browser-based applications (both full class browsers such as

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macO ...

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current a ...

and

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

, as well as WAP browsers). Developers can also create Web Service client and server applications. The server has built-in load balancing capabilities which also assist with High Availability, this does, however, require an SPLF license. ;

Web Framework A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build an ...

: DataFlex includes a web framework for writing web and mobile applications. ;Character mode DataFlex: The latest iteration of the original character mode application (3.2) is available as a ''Console Mode'' application for

, Microsoft Windows and

variants (notably

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

External links

Data Access Worldwide
website
DataFlex Learning database
(online resource for learning about building applications with DataFlex)
VDF-GUIdance
(independent resource for users of the DataFlex programming language)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:DataFlex Fourth-generation programming languages Object-oriented programming Programming languages Cross-platform software Web frameworks Object-oriented programming languages High-level programming languages